KBR was awarded a license and
process-design package contract for a new olefins-recovery unit
in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, China.

The client owns an existing commercial plant of
coal-to-olefins, which was put into production in 2011, and, is
said to be the first and largest coal-to-olefin project in the
world. It uses coal as the feedstock to produce polyethylene
and polypropylene by coal gasification to methanol, then methanol to olefin (MTO), and then
olefin polymerization.

This is the second MTO plant for the client with the
capacity of 600 kiloton/yr of olefins (ethylene plus
propylene). It is planned to be put into production in
2014.

Wacker Chemie AG is expanding its
production capacity for vinyl acetate-ethylene (VAE) copolymer
dispersions by constructing a new plant with a capacity of
40,000 metric tpy at its site in Ulsan, South Korea. This will
almost double Ulsans VAE dispersion capacity, reportedly
making the enlarged production complex one of the biggest of
its kind in South Korea. Expected to start up in January 2013,
the new plant will enable WACKER to meet accelerating demand
for high-quality VAE dispersions, especially in Southeast
Asias developing countries. Having budgeted around
10 million for the expansionproject, WACKER is strengthening its
position as one of the worlds major suppliers of VAE
dispersions.

Stamicarbon, the licensing and IP center of
Maire Tecnimont S.p.A., has a contract with
China Chengda Engineering Co. (CHENGDA) for
the supply of high-pressure proprietary equipment for the
Shahjalal Fertilizer Project (SFP) in Bangladesh. This contract
follows on from the license and PDP agreement signed at the
beginning of 2012 with CHENGDA and China National Plant
Import & Export Corp. (COMPLANT) for the design of
this projects urea-synthesis and urea-granulation
plant.

The plant will be operated by Bangladesh Chemical
Industries Corp. (BCIC) on behalf of
the Bangladeshi government, and will be located adjacent to the
existing Natural Gas Fertilizer Factory Ltd.
(NGFF) at Fenchuganj, Sylhet, Bangladesh. The urea plant
synthesis and granulation units will each have a capacity of
1,760 metric tpd.

The urea plant will use Stamicarbons Urea2000Plus technology, which features
Stamicarbons unique pool reactor. Startup is planned for
2015.

The plant uses Davys SNG process technology in
conjunction with Johnson Mattheys purification and
methanation catalysts to convert coal-derived synthesis gas
into SNG, essentially methane, which will be transported via a
new gas pipeline to Beijing. The plant capacity is 4 million
Nm3/day, and it is one of three plants Datang is
building at Keshiketeng, giving an overall site capacity of 12
million Nm3/day. The second plant is in the detailed
engineering phase, and the third plant is in the final stages
of approval.

The plant is one of six SNG plants that Davy and Johnson
Matthey have licensed in China, and it is the first to start up
and produce gas. Another Davy/Johnson Matthey SNG plant is
expected to start up in 2012, with two further plants coming
onstream in 2013.

Versalis, Enis chemical
subsidiary, and Honam Petrochemical Corp. have
signed an agreement for the development of an elastomeric
production plant at its Honam facilities in Yeosu, South
Korea.

The new site will use Versalis proprietary
technologies and will have an elastomers production capacity of
about 200,000 tpy. Startup is planned by the end of 2015.
Versalis will provide its engineering services, commercial
development skills and technical assistance, while Honam will
provide the primary raw materials, operative sites and existing
structures.

KBR has a license and process-design
package contract from Jiutai Energy Group for
its methanol-to-olefins (MTO) recovery project in Dalu New Area, Zhungeer
Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, China.

KBRs MTO technology will be used in the
recovery process for Jiutais 600-kiloton/yr ethylene and
propylene unit. The recovery process will take 1,800 kiloton/yr
of methanol to the MTO reactor and
convert it. The effluent from the MTO reactor will then enter
KBR MTO recovery to separate 600 kiloton/yr of polymer-grade
ethylene product and propylene product.

A subsidiary of Foster Wheeler AGs
Global Engineering and Construction Group has an
engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCm)
contract from LANXESS Butyl Pte. Ltd. for a
new neodymium polybutadiene (Nd-PBR) rubber plant to be built
on Jurong Island, Singapore. This award follows Foster
Wheelers successful completion of this projects
front-end engineering and design earlier this year. Foster
Wheelers scope of work is expected to be completed in
2014.

The new facility, which LANXESS states is expected to be the
largest of its kind in the world, will produce 140,000 tpy of
Nd-PBR, and will include process and finishing buildings, a
central control room, a substation and a tank farm. It will be
built alongside LANXESS 100,000-tpy synthetic
butyl-rubber plant, the largest facility of its type in Asia,
due to start up in 2013, and for which Foster Wheeler is also
the EPCm contractor.

CB&I has a contract from
Huating Coal Group Co., Ltd., for the license,
basic engineering and related services for a polypropylene
plant at Huating Industrial Development Area, Gansu, China.

The plant will use the Novolen advanced gas-phase
polymerization technology to produce the full scope
of polypropylene homopolymers, random copolymers and impact
copolymers. The plant will be part of an integrated
600,000-metric-tpy coal-to-methanol project, which started
production at the end of 2010. The 200,000-metric-tpy
polypropylene plant is expected to start up in 2014.

Major construction has begun on the
Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) project, reported
to be the worlds biggest offshore floating facility.
Shell has celebrated the cutting of first
steel for the facilitys substructure with joint-venture
participants (Inpex and
KOGAS) and lead contractor (the
Technip Samsung Consortium) at Samsung
Heavy Industries Geoje shipyard in South
Korea.

When completed, the Prelude FLNG facility will be 488 m long
and 74 m wide, reportedly making it the largest offshore
floating facility ever built. When fully equipped, and with its
cargo tanks full, it will weigh more than 600,000 tons. There
will be over 3,000 km of electrical and instrumentation cables
on the FLNG facility, the distance from Barcelona to
Moscow.

The Prelude FLNG facility will be deployed in Australian
waters over 200 km from the nearest point on the coast. It will
produce gas at sea, turn it into liquefied natural gas, and
then transfer it directly to the ships that will transport it
to customers.

ENB is an important third component in the manufacture of
EPDM, an advanced heat- and weather-resistant synthetic rubber.
The demand for ENB is forecasted to increase mainly in Asia, in
accordance with the growth of Asias car industries.

The three parties will proceed with the FS for one year,
with the target of commencing commercial operations in
2016.

Toray Industries, Inc. has decided to
establish a new resin-compounding base at its subsidiary,
P.T. Indonesia Toray Synthetics (ITS) in
Indonesia. With the establishment of the facility, ITS will
reportedly be the first resin-compounding base by an
engineering-plastic manufacturer in Indonesia.

Toray will invest approximately 600 million yen for
installation of the 6,000-tpy nylon and polybutylene
terephthalate (PBT) resin-compounding facility, which is
expected to start operation in November 2013.
HP

Have your say

All comments are subject to editorial review.
All fields are compulsory.